The Lover: Racism in the Colony

         Around the beginning of the 20th century, many powerful western countries build the colonies in other undeveloped continents. Most of the time, the governments encouraged their citizens to move to the colonies in order to assimilate people there and also to control the new places easier. In Marguerite Duras' fiction the lover, it describes a tragical love story happened in the French Colony Vietnam. From this story, we can find out that the identity of the hierarchy of the race is solid as well as fix, and race as a important factor that hinders lovers to end up together. 

            Duras describes a complicated relationships between a high school white French girl Jane and a rich Chinese’s businessman Tony. The girl came from a very poor French family in Vietnam. She lived with her mother and two brothers. Her mother only cared about her big brother, even though he was addicted to drug and gambling, and she nearly spent most of the family’s revenues on paying his the debts. Their family needed money, and the family members wanted their younger sister using her beauty to save the family. At that time, Jane was fifteen years old and attended a local boarding. Tony fell in love to him, after he saw Jane on her way to school at Ferry. They had an affair immediately, when they met each other. The relationship between them was not a romantic story. Jane had sex with Tony for getting money to support her family, and Tony had a fiancee to get marry soon. However, they realized that they loved each other deeply later. When Jane’s family knew about their relations, they didn't stop her to be with him, but she can get money from Tony, but they felt shame about their sister having a relationship with a Asian man. Tony’s father forced him to marry a rich Chinese girl, and he would cut Tony off if he kept the relationship with Jane. The wealthy and decent Chinese family would not allow their son to marry a white woman. Both of them could not conquer the hinderance among race and social status, so their broke up in the end. Tony married the woman that his family want, and Jane went back to Paris.

            Colony is a place that combing races together, but in this area different races people are segregated. People from different races belong to different hierarchy in the society. Depending on Duras’ description, we can see clearly how race plays in the colony. On the ferry, there were seats that reserve for white people, and white families could avoid from starving, although they may as poor as the local families. Also, most whites living in the colony had the deep belief that other races are lower to the. For instance even though Tony was very rich and from the powerful family, at the first time he was very nervous to talk to Jane, because he was not white. Jane’s family looked down to him, although he gave money to them. When he had dinner with Jane’s brothers, they didn’t give any respects to him. They even mocked their sister about having the relationship with a Chinese man. At the same time, the wealth Chinese family also turned to believe that the young white girl as a slut, and they would not never allow the only son to marry a other race wife. The relationship was ended by the hindrances of race and social status. The in-depth priority of race is hardly to be conquered, and especially at that period the privilege of race could be more powerful than owning wealthy. Having a interracial marriage or relationships was nearly impossible in colony, and many love stories ended by the impaction of racism. 

                                    The final scene of the lover: Jane went back to France